Cole Wadsworth - Part 2

In part two, Cole and I pick up right where we left off and go even deeper into the craft, the personal, and the philosophical sides of improv. Cole opens up about Two Worms, the duo format he does with Meg that he calls his favorite thing to perform in the entire world. He shares the story of a quarter falling out of his pocket during their very first set and how it became one of the most beautiful moments of his improv life, because both he and Meg chose to let the real world bleed into the story.

This episode also takes an emotional turn when Cole talks about Rengar, his dog who passed away from kidney disease after a year-long fight to keep him alive. Cole shares what it was like to lose the thing that defined him, how it pulled him off stage for a long time, and what it looks like to slowly rebuild your creative fire after grief. He talks about being more specific now about what he wants to perform and why he's drawn to projects that let his uninhibited creativity fly.

We get into the hot seat questions past midnight, and Cole gives deeply thoughtful answers about his favorite characters to play, including monkeys that are always smarter than the humans, tiny things, Satan, and kaijus. He breaks down his approach to space work, why he believes improvisers should complete their object work instead of dropping it, and why when someone endows you with a different object than you think you're holding, you should never change your physicality.

Cole closes with one of the most beautiful pieces of advice I've heard on this podcast: all he's doing is making stuff up and immediately believing it. We also have a passionate conversation about what grounded really means, why it has nothing to do with realism, and why a clown who wants to be a cop but can't take off his nose is one of the most grounded scenes you could ever do.

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Host: Joel Camargo - Insta - @joelc1225
Audio Editor: Matt Issacs - Insta - @mattisaacs20

Transcript

Cole's Insecurity About His Own Stories

Cole 0:06

It's my fault. It's my own insecurity. I don't think my own stories are interesting. Wow. Um, on their own, uh, to me. You know, so when I'm telling them, I'm just like, well, whatever. And so I'm like, I want to engage with you and your like thing. Yeah. And then your stuff fuels me. And I'm like, okay, I can talk about my stuff more.

Joel 0:27

I mean, that works too. I'm loving the I'm loving the way this interview is going. I'm not saying anything it's wrong. Um, but but I guess I guess what I'm curious about is because we haven't gotten to fully two worms or what you did after dads. Yeah, the rookie after the rookies dissolved, how you stay performing, um yeah, your goals currently in the scene, like their other thoughts.

Two Worms: Cole's Favorite Thing in the World

Cole 0:50

Yeah. I yeah, two worms started doing improv. Two worms is the thing that I love to do the most. It is my favorite performance, it's my favorite thing to perform. I love it more than anything. It has I remember I essentially remember every single improv that I've done as two worms. From the very first one to the most recent one, they have all been so impactful and important, and I love it very much. And that is my that is my love letter to two worms. But I think what it did was um it gave me an opportunity to do what I've always thought improv was, you know, which is aggressive, full blast, 100% commitment to the most interesting, whimsical thing that happens. You know, and that goes for like narratively, but also in the environment. In our very first, our very first performance, we created two worms for um an improv festival that was happening, an improv competition that was happening, um like years, years, years ago. And we get on stage and there's like five people in the audience. One of those people, Gary Cassidy, uh, was in the audience, and we were we like we're we were like telling a story of this old man who's building a rocket ship and he's like building it, and his neighbor was pissed, you know, he's just like I was doing stuff, and then the old man's like, I'm gonna get this face, blah blah blah. And I leaned back in a chair, and like a quarter or something falls out of my pocket and hits the ground and makes the like long quarter noise, you know, like clink, clink, clink and rolls, and Meg and I both just look at the quarter for like 30 seconds. It's going off for a long time, and then just the like fall falling sound, and then clink, and then we both just burst into like screaming. We're just like, oh god! And then there, you know, like because that's like one of the bolts of the rocket fell off. It immediately both of us like agreed to it, and then the rocket crashes, and and the set was so beautiful and amazing and so alive, and it was consuming the narrative, it was consuming each other's choices, and it was consuming the environment, the actual like real world was impacting the story. And I think that plays out in every two-worm set, the way that the audience interacts with us, you know. If one person makes a noise, you know, of like a character they care about is in danger, I might, as a performer, look at them and like smile as I jump into the volcano. Yeah. You know, just to just to give them this, this like hatred of of this moment. Now they now not only they loathe the fact that the character they loved died, but they're they're so impassioned by that choice, you know, that that you see it in their face.

Breaking the Fourth Wall with the Audience on Purpose

Joel 4:06

Yeah, you you know that you did that this past weekend also. Yeah. Yeah, you were like teasing the death of the character in the car and the with the with the car driving or whatever.

Cole 4:17

Yep, it's because it's because we played a gimmick where the audience, one of the audience members, could like choose songs to influence the scene, and the the character was in danger. And she picks a song, and we look at her and we're just like, That one? You you really want that one? And she goes, Yeah, the it the the description was inspiring and heroic. I want to save that guy. And something clicked in me where I was like, Are you gonna put railroad? You're gonna put tracks on me? You're gonna you're gonna try and dictate what happens here? You're gonna try and save this character?

Joel 4:56

And I was just like, Yeah, the anti-authority brain that's kicked in.

The Anti-Authority Brain: Defying Audience Expectations

Cole 5:01

And and like like the expected, you know, um and all this stuff. But more more than anything, because I'm totally willing to do like the expected, especially if it serves the unexpected later. But in that moment, I was like, this is really this is so juicy. Like you, you actually want the thing. And I could just so easily let this squirrel burn up in this fire, you know. This squirrel raised by pigeons. Yep. I could just easily let it happen.

Where Is Cole Now Artistically?

Joel 5:31

Uh but that was fun. Yeah. That was fun. So two worms, your favorite thing ever. It's the best. Yeah. You're not performing as much now. Is there something you um you wish you'd perform more? Like a timing thing, a schedule? What what's like your artistic life now currently?

Rengar: The Dog That Changed Everything

Cole 5:51

Yeah, I in the background of everything that has happened during my artistic career, like that prev that was the I would say the foundation of who I was as a person was a dog named Ringar. And this dog I got I got him in college. I knew the person whose dog. Like I knew a person, their dog had puppies, and I was like, I'm not gonna take one. I'm not gonna, I don't I don't want a dog, I'm in college, I can't have this responsibility, blah blah blah. And I was like, This is the only way that I'll take this dog. I'll take one of the dogs. If it's the runt of the litter, it has to fulfill two of these three requirements. The runt of the litter, it has bat wings, or and it has two different color eyes. If two of two out of those three things happen, then I'll take the dog. Oh my god. This runt, this motherfucking runt, had a cleft lip, and so he was like, you know, having a hard time. He needed to be like bottle fed, tube-fed, where you stick a tube inside of him and you pump food into his stomach. And so I like I was dating this person at the time, and so I was helping with all these puppies, and so I was feeding this thing, and this monk got an eye infection, so we had to give him medicine, and puppies don't open their eyes for like a while, you know, so that their eyes are closed for like a long time, and then they open them. Well, when he opened his fucking eyes, the eye-infection die had fully cataract, so he had two different color eyes, and he was the run. It's like he did that on purpose, like he knew the reveal, the reveal at the end, yeah. And so he became the most important thing in the entire universe to me. Like, essentially immediately, once I was like, oh, okay, great. And this dog was this dog was the most perfect dog. Everyone agreed. Every single person that met him agreed. He was that most perfect, beautiful dog, so fucking smart. Perfect. Yeah. Ugh, I can't express and I've already cried too much about him. So I can talk about this without like just erupting in tears. But he passed away. He passed away from kidney disease, and it was really, really, really hard. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was a whole year of injecting fluids into him, you know, trying to give him the best last possible year. Because he was only projected to have like 30 days when we went there. He was he was at the like late stage kidney disease because he wouldn't show any signs until one day he peed indoors. And I was like, Oh, you never do that. Take it to a vet. And they're like, he has late-stage kidney disease. We're like, what? And so he's like, You got 30 days with him. Like, what the fuck? And my, you know, like soon-to-be partner at the time was like really smart about animal stuff. And so she helped me, you know, like do some things and stuff when we were like giving him fluids every day. And we stretched it to a whole year. We multiplied it by 10, 10, how long this dog was supposed to last. But at the end of that, it it killed me. It destroyed me. I couldn't get on stage, I couldn't do anything. I was like, no, then like this isn't, I'm a different person now. I don't even know who this guy is. You know, I was Colin Rangar. That's who I was. Yeah. And everyone knew that too. Like it was those two guys. And so I really didn't know how to exist. You know, and so it's like it was like a slow progression, kind of coming back, figuring out like what that means to me, who I am, how do I perform? And you know, like I've gotten to a point where now it's like I've processed a lot of it. I'm still I still don't really know, you know, who I am, like what I'm like what I'm supposed to do, you know, in this life. When I was it was so clear to me. You know, it was like me and this dog are meant to take over the world, you know. But he goes away and I'm just like still part of me is like me and this dog, and I just don't I haven't figured it out. But you process, you know, you find things in your life that inspire you and and put that fire back in you and and you like grab onto them and you're just like, oh please, please, please. You know, like please don't go out, please. For the the the flame, yeah. And then you hold on to that and then you let that like hit the kindling of other ideas that you have, and you're like, okay, okay, now I really gotta like go as far as I can with this thing before it goes out. Because they go, it goes out when you're like drenched in you know, when your whole fucking soul is you've been crying and you soak your whole soul into sadness, it's really hard to start a fire, and sometimes they start and then they just get like drenched again. And so it took forever for me to even just like have the the sparks that stayed ignited, and so now I'm in that place again where I'm like I really want to do more, I want to perform more, but I'm a new person, so I'm more specific about what I want to what I want to do. What do you want to do? I mean two worms, yeah, you know, more two worms. I really like two worms, I like doing that. I like doing things that um when I'm investing in them, I feel like my uninhibited creativity isn't a detriment to what someone else is trying to do. You know what I mean? Because sometimes I feel like my style can be a bit brace abrasive, you know, if someone wants to do a regular, we're sitting in a in an office having a conversation or we're on a bus and we're just two regular people talking about our lives kind of scene, which has value and I'm not I have no hatred against that. But that it takes a lot for me to not, you know, make it like a like a my near tutorial bus, you know, uh, or even just like a moment that kind of like throws a little like whimsy in it, even if the conversation, which I do actually 100% agree that most conversations should just be like regular human conversations, but I really want to put them, you know, on the back of a whale or you know, like free-falling, but you're still having a regular conversation. And so when other people are like, hey man, I'm trying to start this thing and I want to do this thing and stuff, I have to like gauge where I'm like am I gonna have to kind of curate the things that I really am passionate about right now, the things that are keeping my spark alive. Yeah, the flames, yeah, keeping the flame alive, you know, without and which isn't a judgment on their stuff, it's just yeah, you're you're trying to keep that flame

Keeping the Creative Flame Alive After Grief

Cole 12:50

alive.

Joel 12:50

Like you're trying to keep that creative energy flowing however you can.

Cole 12:57

Yeah, yeah. Trying to

The D&D Podcast and the Dopamine of Talking About Projects

Cole 13:00

light it up.

Joel 13:00

Trying to light it up. You know. Though the D the D D podcast is part of that too, that you're doing. Oh, is that a secret? Wait, is that a secret?

Cole 13:09

Cats out of the bag, everyone.

Mixed 13:11

No, no, no, no, no. Okay, okay.

Cole 13:13

It's not a secret. Um, I try not to talk about it too much because I'm uh I'm guilty of the the dopamine of conversation fucking with your motivation, you know. So like talking about your project, and then you feel like added pressure to it. It's like the opposite, you know, it like relieves the pressure. Oh, interesting. I'm like talking about it and I'm just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's happening, and then I don't feel like I have to get it done tonight, you know.

Joel 13:40

Oh, you you feel like you could protect procrastinate on it because you're talking about it.

Cole 13:45

Because I'm I'm I'm receiving the the beneficial pennies in my brain.

Joel 13:49

I think you're right. I think I have read that somewhere too. I think I've heard I think I've heard about that happening. I bet it's totally a thing.

Cole 13:55

I think it's a thing, yeah. Yeah. But I am guilty of it where like I'll I yammer about something and I get so excited about it, I'm just like, yeah.

Joel 14:02

Yeah, actually for a while I wasn't talking about this podcast idea only with a handful of people because I was like, I was scared of the same thing. I was like, wait, I don't want to just talk about it because I'm scared I'm not gonna do it. So then I just started like buying equipment and just like Googling, like, how do I do this? How do I do this? I just for alone for a while. And then once I started like, you know, setting it, I'm pointing at my living room. Yeah, yeah. I have I decked out my living room with like these little sound panels, what do you call it? I don't forget what the I don't know, these things are. Yeah, they're like, yeah, the sound dampening foam. Yeah, sound sound dampening foam. Um and I was like, okay, well, I'm like doing it now. Like I'm like ready to go. So I can start like I think telling people that I'm about to do this. Um what adhesive did you use for these? Glue? How'd you say no? It comes it comes with uh it came with um adhesive to peel and to put it on. Great. No follow-up questions. Um is anything, let's see. Oh, we didn't even do the oh my god, we have a cole. It's we haven't even done the put you on the hot seat yet.

Hot Seat Questions Begin

Cole 15:07

What does that mean?

Joel 15:09

Oh my god, we gotta put you on the hot seat, dude.

Cole 15:12

Has this has this felt long? No. Okay, okay, because I felt that way too.

Joel 15:16

But it hasn't felt long. It felt like maybe like one hour, I feel like.

Cole 15:19

Yeah, truly.

Joel 15:20

When you said two hours, I was kind of blown away. Yeah, it's too. Do you want to guess how long it's been right now? Two hours and ten minutes. 220. It's flying. Uh okay, let's put you in the hot seat and then we'll we'll start to wrap up.

unknown 15:32

Okay.

Joel 15:33

Um uh I need to I'm gonna be better. This is for the audience too. I need to be better with like accumulating community questions ahead of time, but sometimes I don't know what guest I'm gonna have with enough time to like get community questions. So I have hot seat questions. What does that mean?

Cole 15:49

What is the what are the hot seat questions?

Joel 15:51

Uh hot seat questions are just um questions that I ask every guest. Okay before you wrap. They're just like some. Are they complicated? They're not pro balls, they're softballs. But you're gonna get an extra hard one. You'll get an extra. You should go get a baseball. There'll be three softballs and then a baseball.

Mixed 16:10

Uh I mean, softballs are harder to hit, man. The pitch is way closer. Okay, then you'll get four softballs then. Wait, what? Softballs are harder to hit. You you go up against uh a pitcher, and then you go like a baseball pitcher. Man, just shut up. People underestimate the the difficulty of hitting a softball. God, can you shut the improv? Can you shut up and get in the hot seat, dude? Shut up and get in the hot seat. Hold on, let me hold on. The audience doesn't even know what time it is. It's almost midnight. Let me get in the hot seat really quick.

Cole 16:41

It's almost midnight right now. Oh, it's really hot in here. Yeah, get in. Get in.

Joel 16:46

I'm gonna make sure you buckle, make sure the buckle clicks.

Cole 16:49

Yeah, I'm gonna buckle it, but uh, I gotta I gotta get my drink really quick.

Joel 16:55

Buckle it.

Cole 16:57

Okay.

Mixed 16:58

Okay, now he's in the hot seat. Uh also, um, each episode when I either do community questions or hot seat questions, I improvise the jingle. Is this real? This is real. This is real. Uh Matt, this is a specific request from my audio editor, Matt. Uh, he's like, hey, can you do that every time? I enjoy it. When did you? Uh I think I did on the first one.

Cole 17:22

Okay, good.

Improvised Hot Seat Jingles at Midnight

Joel 17:23

I think it's been a thing throughout. Yep. Okay. So hot seat. So today's is gonna be hot seat with Cole.

Mixed 17:39

Come on, Cole. Don't oh, don't say I did it. You did why did you do that? I know what you're playing. I have to do a new one. Yeah, you should do one more.

Joel 17:48

Oh, God.

Cole 17:57

That one was so good. We wouldn't have gotten that one if you didn't ruin the first one. Can you do one more? Um, and can you can you put can you put the phrase like uh like burning my skin off? Okay, okay scolding hot. It's too hot. Too hot.

Joel 18:14

Actually, there it is. Okay, or scolding hot, do scolding hot. You you want the phrase scolding hot in it? Yeah, see if you can do it. Okay.

Cole 18:32

Great. All right, now you got options.

Joel 18:36

Um, I'm we're probably gonna keep all of them.

Cole 18:40

Well, you're not editing it.

Mixed 18:41

Well, we try well, I think what's we try not to edit too much. That's which is why like it ends up being like two-part episodes when we go too long because we I want to keep as much authentic conversation in as we can. Oh, I've said so much. Yeah, this one's like this one, I feel like I don't know. I'll talk to Matt about this one. I feel like this one's gonna be tough to edit because we go do enough on so many tangents. Um, and what I do is I try to do the podcast. I don't know if you're a podcaster, but like um do the chapters organizing the episode into like sections of conversation. Yeah, I think it'd be pretty easy. For this one? Yeah, yeah, but it's I feel like they're not gonna be and it doesn't matter. Let's circle back. Yeah, oh they're gonna be seven chapters, like circling back to improv. Circling back to improv, circling back to improv. Circling back to improv.

Cole 19:33

You just do what like you're talking about in between, because I think we did a good job of connecting each other.

Joel 19:38

Yeah, yeah, I think so too. I think so too. Um, it's gonna be fine. Nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong, nothing's hard, everything's gonna be just the way it is, and it's beautiful, just the way it is. Thank you, Cole, for being here. I'm so grateful for your presence. It's just a really fun time. You ready for Hot Seat questions? Ha ha! You know, maybe maybe you know what's happening? Maybe it's because it's a late night recording. Oh, indeed. I haven't had a late night recording yet. I feel like we're I feel like I guess we would be silly anyway, so well, there's two things.

Cole 20:12

There's two things that I've I think are gonna just be true with the two of us, is we're both uh pretty aggressively honest, you know. Uh and aggressively honest? Yeah. I don't know why that's a funny phrase for me. Aggressively honest. It's because everyone everyone ties honesty to like the right thing and aggressiveness to the wrong thing. You know? Which I don't think that's true. I think you can be aggressively good things often. Um And the other thing is that we both like genuinely love this craft, you know? And I think it's very easy to just kind of like quickly grab at the things when they're they're you're we we love it so much. Yeah. Yeah. This whole thing, this whole like however long, it was like an hour, right? This whole thing was um it really was like two people just like as uh as like aggressively as possible, constantly grabbing at the next thing that you know, conversationally. Yeah, it was nice. All right, put me in the hot seat. All right. I mean, I've sat in here long enough. You're in it. I would like to receive

Favorite Characters

Cole 21:30

it.

Joel 21:30

You're in it, and you're buckled in. All right. Um, first hot seat question. What are some of your favorite characters to play?

Cole 21:40

Oh, monkeys, monsters. I real I like monkeys um specifically because the physicality is very nice. Uh it lends itself to um a different angle. Uh my monkey characters are never dumb, they're always smarter than the other person. Yeah. Uh because I um I never like to play the dumb character unless I'm myself. I don't mind being Yeah.

Joel 22:08

I feel like now that you mentioned I feel like I've seen you play multiple monkeys. Yeah, and yeah. They're always like doctors or scientists. Yeah, you're right. You're always like so sophisticated for a monkey. And I've seen you actually climb you climb you climb the the pole at Dynamical Dorado to the top of the and like touch the ceiling.

Cole 22:33

Yeah. Yeah. Well this goes back to um I I don't think the the joke, the comedy of anything, should be because of the lack of something that someone might

The Joke Should Never Be Because of the Way Someone Is

Cole 22:49

have.

Joel 22:49

You know, a character. The lack of something a character might have.

Cole 22:52

Um no, I think sometimes we'll we'll make the joke be uh a like an aspect of some someone that someone in real life might have. Yes, you know, and I don't think that that's uh a good um fuel for a scene. I don't think the joke should ever be because of the way someone is, exactly. I think it's way more interesting to have the joke be somewhere else that can which isn't to say not to do it, right? Um because I also think that, you know, um avoiding certain things is also kind of like doing the same thing where you know, like if you're if someone, you know, uh like says like your character has lost something, you know, like uh like a sense, like um, like they're your character's now blind, you know, um like they splash something in and you're blind, right? To just like aver uh like be like super averse to saying like coming out as a blind character, um, is also suggesting something, you know, that's like like uh I I don't really have the the words for it, but there is a right way to do it, you know, to like come out as the as like someone who can no longer see right now and not have it be funny that they can't see, you know, but be interesting of like what do you now do? You know, as someone that you know is so accustomed to being able to see and now you can't see. And same with like made a monkey, right? You don't have to like be like, oh, I'm a big dumb monkey, right? The interesting thing might be like, all right, so the way a monkey moves, you know, what if you saw them successfully driving a truck, right? Like with like their arms like way high, like longer arms driving a truck. It's so interesting. Sword fighting? Have you ever seen a monkey sword fight? No, and what if they were incredibly good at it? Probably will be. They always they if I'm the monkey, they are gonna be good at it. So monkeys and monsters, favorite monkeys, monsters, robots, aliens, knights. I love being a knight. What else? Yeah, we're on that list. Yep. Uh kings, witches, ghosts, anything inanimate, love inanimate objects. What's your favorite inanimate object to be?

Favorite Characters Continued

unknown 25:26

Fuck.

Cole 25:28

Something that someone is on top of. So a car, um, a seat, a horse. Those are those are animate, though. Um okay, next hot to question. We're done here. Or something small. Okay. Or anything tiny. Any character that's tiny. I like playing really tiny things. Oh, really, really big things. Finally, it's our kaijus.

Joel 25:49

Kaijus, like huge city destroying the monsters.

Cole 25:52

Yeah, city destroying. Or a bad guy. Or Satan. I really like playing Satan.

Joel 25:59

I'm giving Cole a scolding glare as I'm trying to move on to the next hot seat question. You, you're you're trying to as it's past midnight. You then, real quick, then you what? Well, your

Joel's Favorite Characters

Joel 26:12

character.

Cole 26:12

Just a couple. We don't have a lot of time, Joel.

Joel 26:15

Yeah, let's see. My characters, my favorite characters. I think I think I do I think I do a kid often. Yeah.

Cole 26:23

Because you like innocence. What the fuck does that mean? Your characters are always innocent.

Joel 26:29

No, they're not. Often. No, they're not.

Cole 26:32

Often they are.

Joel 26:33

Don't tell me what my character.

Cole 26:34

You don't even see me play. Yeah, I see you play often. And you know, and you know what I've noticed, Joel? What? Is that it to put heart into a scene, improvisers will take a moral stance. And you like to have heart in your scenes, and so your characters will have a moral stance.

Joel 26:50

Oh, goes goes to goes to show what you know because I was in a show last night, and I was uh a mean, I was a mean old uh film executive guy.

Cole 27:03

Oh, yeah.

Joel 27:05

Yeah.

Cole 27:07

Oh, hey man. And I was mean. Shit, dude. Good. Uh never mind. I take it back. Take it back, yeah.

Joel 27:15

Hey, lady, everyone listening. Cole can be wrong.

Cole 27:21

Cole, not only can he. Cole will be and has been.

Joel 27:27

Um, yeah, but I think uh I uh let's see, little kid. I do like a villain. I'm starting to lean into villain characters. I'm having fun with villains at the moment with like improvising musicals that need a villain, need a good villain character. Um, that's fun.

Cole 27:43

Do you go? Do you how often do you are you the first one out? In any scene?

Joel 27:48

Yeah, in in groups. Nah, not it depends on the group, to be honest with you. Um yeah, it depends on the group. Because if it's with the team or a group that I'm confident with, I'll step out because I'm not concerned about every anyone else stepping out. If it's at a jam, I guess it depends on the jam team too. Uh so I guess the scale is like if I if I feel like I'm with newer, inexperienced people, I'll let them make offers and then a support, and then I'll go in and support their stuff that they're doing. Um, but if I'm with more, yeah. And if I'm with more experienced supervisors, people that I know or have good chemistry with, I'll step out

How Often Do You Initiate Scenes?

Joel 28:27

more.

Cole 28:27

Yeah, yeah.

Joel 28:28

I feel like that's my scale right now.

Cole 28:30

That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joel 28:32

I think that's really healthy. But are you trying to interview me? Is that what's happening? What? No, it's just trying to put me on the hot seat.

Cole 28:41

I know, sorry, dude. Sorry, bruh. Sorry, bruh. No. Um, go ahead, ask me.

Go-To Space Work and Environment Work

Joel 28:48

What is your go-to um spacework or environment or like um pantomiming that you like to do?

Cole 28:55

Oh. My go-to. Go-to. I like to, um, I really like to, oh god. So much. Like a like a classic that you like to do. I'll give you two answers. Okay. Uh the first one will be a classic that I like to do on my own. What?

Joel 29:18

That's a weird way to say it.

Cole 29:19

Well, because uh okay. A classic that I like to do on my own. Um I like Oh my god.

Joel 29:31

I this is this is tougher than well, I guess it makes sense that this is tough, actually.

Cole 29:40

And that oh, it just feels like you uh you wanna know? Smoke a cig.

Joel 29:48

No, you that's wrong. Your answer's wrong. You're that's not your go-to. I feel go ahead. I'll tell you, I'll tell you what your go-to is.

Cole 30:08

Please, you're probably looking in on it, you probably have a different thing.

Joel 30:12

Um, I don't know if it's a go-to. Yeah, I think actually, this probably question is probably tough for you because of what we talked about about how physical you are. You probably do so many different things and you're trying to do new things all the time. Um, but something that I've seen you do pretty often is be on the outside of a vehicle. Hanging on a vehicle, like a truck, a plane, a boat. I've seen it multiple times where you're hanging on the outside of something. Yeah, doing something.

Cole 30:48

Do you know do you know okay? I actually have an answer for this. Okay. And this is true. I like to put things away. I like to place things in an environment. So if there's a cup, um, I want to put it somewhere. I want to like make sure that there is something for me or someone else to pick up again. Cause I think that's really underrated in the world of improv mime is uh handling our object work to its ending, you know? Like we did we like Yeah,

When Someone Endows You with a Different Object, Don't Drop It

Cole 31:34

to its ending, yeah.

Joel 31:34

It drops very, very often.

Cole 31:36

We manifest cups, and to a certain degree, I'm okay with like the manifesting of a thing. Because if someone's like, like, um, oh I see you're sipping on that coffee, and then I and I hold it up like now I'm holding the coffee, I think that's fine. I I think it's a weaker choice, yeah, you know. Um because I in in the world of physicality, I think the more interesting thing is when someone endows you with something and it is contradictory to how you are physicalized, it is now your grand gift to explain why they are correct. You are doing that thing, even though it doesn't look like it, because the way that you do it is that way, you know, instead of changing your physicality. Interesting. For example, if someone, you know, says like uh you're you know, like holding a cup, and someone goes, uh like, oh uh uh you found my pet snake, you know, and you had like taken a sip from it, for you to then start squirming, right? You've been holding it. You've been holding it for so long, it's been you took a sip out of it. Don't drop that. That's that's beautiful and gold and perfect. You take another sip out of it. You take another sip out of your snake. And now it's yeah, you're taking a sip out of a snake now. Yep, and you're like, yeah, I did. Your snake drank my beer, and I'm just getting what's mine, you know.

Joel 32:58

Well, so what if a similar example, but what if you weren't holding anything and someone was like, Oh, I see you're drinking your your coffee.

Cole 33:05

Yep, I'm wearing a beer hat but has got coffee in it. Uh give me another one. No. Can I answer it the second way that I said I had two ways? Yeah, two, yeah, good. Um that's what I do when if I'm by myself and I'm doing physicality. Okay. But if I'm with someone else, I like to wait until they touch something. And then that's my favorite thing. Interact with someone else's object work, especially if they, you know, do something funny with it. Yeah. Or I think is like interesting or not how it's supposed to be.

The Wine Glass Moment: The Power of Consistent Pantomiming

Cole 33:46

You know?

Joel 33:46

Yeah, you'll grab their mimed object and you play with it.

Cole 33:50

Oh, yeah. Because if they do something weird with it, then I'm like, oh, you're telling me that you know, like your car door has that particular function or feature. And to me, as the improviser on stage, that's not weird, right? That's just how it works. It works that way. But to the performer that keyed in on that difference, the way that your car door opens up to the right instead of the left, 100%.

Joel 34:16

I want to go through that door. I love that. Um, that is such a cool skill. That reminds me of an exercise that I was brainstorming. Push-ups. Um, what?

Cole 34:26

Oh, sorry, I was trying to guess the exercise.

Joel 34:30

Man, even at past midnight, you your your your energy your energy bar, your HP is still so high. Um no, it's a physical physicality exercise pantomiming similar to what you just said about like playing with someone else's thing, their pantomimed object. It's um two performers start the scene with an uh they they do a regular two-person scene, and at some point they need to grab something in the scene, do a scene, but not talk about the things they're interacting with, whether it's a cup or a ball or a pen or a pad, whatever they're touching in the scene. And then at some point, something they go holding their hand, at some point in the scene, they place it down somewhere, both place their item down somewhere in the scene, and then they go continuing the scene, they go grab the other person's thing and then start to play with it and continue the scene.

Cole 35:25

Even if I watched that and it was super contrived, and I was sitting there and they told me that was gonna happen, I think I'd still find it interesting. Yeah.

Joel 35:34

Um, because it made me think of one time I did a show, it was a Measure Island show, and I was a villain in that show, and I had this one, I was like a wine drinking, a classic holding a glass very fancily and really whipping it around whipping it around, and I was so focused on this glass, I would I would change hands with it, put it down, and like talk and say something, pick it back up from the spot that I knew I put it down at and hold it, holding it, and I I would do that. This was a part of my character throughout the show. Um, and I had two different people after the show be like, dude, the you and the wine glass. It's like I couldn't stop watching you with that wine glass was incredible, and then the same thing. The other person was like, dude, the my favorite part of the show is you remembering where you put your wine glass, and I was like, Man, imagine if and not yeah, and I was hyper-fixated on it because that was like my goal for that show specifically. Actually, I just want to shout out like that for that show. I was like, I want to focus on physicality and my room today. Um, but that just goes to show the power of pantomiming and building out the world and the environment to play in. Yeah, imagine if everyone was doing it. Oh, what a show to watch.

How to Build a Physicality Reflex

Cole 37:00

Yeah, there's so much to keep track of. So yeah, when people are are like, they'll say things like, like, I don't know how you do it and stuff like that. And it's like they no one really realizes how easy it is to to ingrain this in yourself, like to make physicality consistent, you know. If you just like go to some jams and you think to yourself, I'm just going to play with stuff. If you go to a jam and you just before you go on a stage and you just think to yourself, I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not gonna say anything until I've like touched three different things. And then I'm gonna try to. Oh, that's good. That's good. Because then, you know, you you will at least, at bare minimum, have interacted with three different things, you know, that you can come back to build that like repetition, build that like um reflex, and then and then we're just getting different, more interesting scenes.

Joel 38:02

Yeah. You ready to move on to the next hot seat question? Last

Last Hot Seat Question: Advice for New Improvisers

Joel 38:06

one.

Cole 38:06

Oh shit. This is he's saying the last one because he's cutting off the bottom two.

Joel 38:11

No, the the no, there's three hot seat questions. It was the favorite characters, go-to environment work, and this last one.

Cole 38:16

Okay, great. And these are custom. Are do you have you been asking everyone's go-to environment work?

Joel 38:21

Yeah, the these three are these three. I asked everyone. The stuff that we talked about already was uh your physical play, uh, two worms is what I wanted to talk about too, and your background are specific to you.

Cole 38:33

Has anyone really surprised you with one of these hot seat questions? Or they surprised me. They're all like, oh yeah, that makes sense.

Joel 38:42

Well, they're all interesting. Yeah, some of them, because like um, I think go to environment work. I think it's too early. I think I'm only like a handful of uh of episodes in, you know what I mean? So I think I still need some more interviews to see what people are experiencing. But Fridge comes up a lot, I think already. And from what I hear on other um my favorite improv podcast is yes, also with Susie Barrett. Um, and she asks these similar questions here. The favorite characters go to environment works. So I'm truly just copy pasting her and like end of show routine. And um, and uh I hear a lot on her podcast, people mention fridge, classic cupboard, kitchen, boomerang stuff, boomerang.

Cole 39:27

That's one of mine, I guess.

Joel 39:29

That's one of yours. Um, but some of the classic stuff that we see all the time, opening a soda, just like uh classic, you know what I mean? Um, a lot of the classic stuff. So I feel like it's cool when uh people listening to the podcast hear, oh, this this experienced improviser, like they also open a fridge sometimes, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like that's kind of cool, but like, oh, they also just like they do the same thing I do sometimes, just like drink, make a coffee.

Cole 40:00

Yeah, totally, totally, totally. It helps it helps to differentiate between like cliche and and foundations. Yeah, I yeah, I love that wording, you know, yes, because there's like if we all open fridges, no one's thinking like what I oh I've seen that before. Yeah, you know, it's like, oh no, that's just we're establishing that this is a home environment. Yeah, exactly. Or, you know, like a communal space or something, you know. Yeah. But if you open the fridge and I can't think of any cliches that have to do with fridges.

Joel 40:35

Me neither. Uh I I I like to vary it up with the fridge. Sometimes I open the fridge and I'll like move stuff, I'll move stuff around in the fridge to see what's in the back of the fridge, and then grab something from the back of the fridge and then like close the the you know the that's good.

Cole 40:51

Sometimes I like to open the fridge and then I walk into it, and then I take an elevator down and I go to my basement fridge, and then I'll take the elevator back up. So the last hot seat question. I'm just kidding, but I really need to put that into my subconscious so that it'll bleed out. That's a good one, though. Yeah, I'd be so that's a fun one.

Joel 41:10

Um, last hot seat question. You ready? I want to know if you're ready.

Cole 41:14

Honestly, I've been procrastinating because I'm too scared of this question. No, this is this. I I think you're gonna like this question. People have been telling me about this question. Yeah. Your previous guess. Guess we're saying no letter.

Joel 41:27

But I think it's an important question for people to know.

Cole 41:29

Okay.

Joel 41:30

Oh I'm ready. Okay. Take a deep breath. Let's take a deep breath together. Three, two, one.

Cole 41:37

Minus late. Do it again.

Joel 41:40

Okay, well, three, two, wait a lot. Three, two, one. Okay. The question is what is some advice that you would give to improvisers that are just starting out?

Cole 41:58

Oh my god. Some advice? Multiple or like one?

Joel 42:03

Uh let's let's do one.

Cole 42:05

Yeah, for time? For time. You should know, Joel.

Mixed 42:11

Well, then um, yeah, what time is it? It's two two hours and fifty minutes. Well, you know what? Screw it. Just say just say what you want. No, no, no, keep it brief. Um brief.

Cole 42:28

This it's just tough. This one's a tough one because I I think if someone came up to me and they had never done improv before, and they're like, how do you do that? How do you do improv? What would I tell that person? Like, I want to do improv. How do I do that? I would probably say something along the lines of like, all I'm doing, and I think anyone can do this, I think all I'm doing is I'm I'm making stuff up and then immediately believing it. Wow, actually, that's pretty good.

Joel 43:13

I actually do love that very much. I'm glad you took your time with that processing that because that was beautiful. I'm making stuff up and immediately believing it.

Cole 43:22

Yeah, because if you do that, then I think most of the time it's I'm gonna steal that. It's gonna be a good time.

Joel 43:29

Yeah. I think that's the part that is most disconnecting. I think when we talk about before, like casual when people have casual energy in improv, I feel like that's the missing element because I don't believe watching it that you believe what's happening on stage. That's what's taking me out of it if I'm not keeping me from enjoying

Why Cole Gets Upset When People Say He's Not Grounded

Joel 43:53

it.

Cole 43:53

And that's why I get upset when people say I'm not a grounded performer.

Joel 44:01

What? That's insane to me. That's insane!

Cole 44:02

When people when people suggest that they can they can they contrast me with a grounded performer, not that they're saying that I'm not, but they'll be like they'll be like, oh, like, I really like your style, but then I also like their style because you know they're they're different. They're like a grounded performer. They do grounded work. And I'm like, you know. Because like being grounded, right, is to me, it is just a true, like, you are in it. What we are doing. Committed. Yeah, it the rules, I'm playing by the rules that we establish, right? I'm not just doing some like wacky, you know, like blah blah blah, and it's laissez-faire, and anything is anything, and I'm just firing off jokes left and right. No, to me, in fact, very little of what I do is jokes. You'll never, you'll I never do puns. I think puns are not grounded, you know, because unless your character is like a pun character, but if you're just throwing out a pun, that's being ungrounded. My character is if I'm slime, if I'm if I'm, you know, fucking Jeffrey Slime and I am a slime, but I come home and and you're, you know, and I'm worried that we're gonna get a divorce because I'm out late every night, you know, that's a grounded scene. Who and it doesn't matter if I'm a slime. Yeah. Doesn't matter if I'm 100% goo.

Joel 45:25

100%. Um, I I feel like this word grounded is like so controversial. It's because there's all these different definitions of people don't understand what grounded means. Um yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to for those listening. If you if it if you have a class, I think this what do I want to say here? If you're in a class or you you have a teacher that's using the word grounded, raise your hand and ask them what grounded means. So get their get their definition and just start to collect the definitions, and you'll see that I think it's very different. Here's what I believe, and what Cole's definition also is what I believe. Grounded does not mean serious, sad, um realistic, realistic. It uh grounded to me means committed, that the person on stage believes the circumstances that they've created in the scene. If you're a caterpillar and you're scared to be uh eaten by a hawk, your character is I can see the fear of the your character on stage of a caterpillar being scared. That's grounded to me. If I can believe that you're a caterpillar in that scenario, cool. That's that's fantastic. I love that. That's grounded to me.

Grounded Doesn't Mean "Realistic"

Cole 46:46

Yeah. Uh separating grounded from realism, I think is an incredibly important distinction because it might confuse people. They might, you know, be forced, not encouraged to make their scenes more like the real world. That's not what we know. That's not what you that's not nothing wrong with it, but that shouldn't be what we're encouraged.

Joel 47:09

Yeah, it shouldn't be what we're encouraged. I think that's a better way to word it.

Cole 47:13

It's totally a totally viable option, but it's not.

Joel 47:15

Yeah. If you're going for uh a fully improvised play or something, you know, you could totally do that.

Cole 47:21

Even just a regular, I know so many people that are like really gifted improvisers, and all they do is they go out, they have a regular ass conversation, and they're funny as fuck.

Joel 47:30

Mm-hmm.

Cole 47:31

And then they walk off and they had a whole they just had an 11s. They just did an 11s, uh, which is two people standing on stage having a conversation, and it was amazing. But that doesn't mean it was grounded, you know? Like were there was there any like you know, like wants? Was there any, you know, development in the character? Was there any, you know, anything outside the jokes? Maybe, maybe not, though. That's just a realistic scene. It's not a grounded scene. People want to be grounded. Grounded. Telling me I can't be grounded being a clown, you know, that tries to be a cop but refuses to stop being a clown, you know?

Joel 48:12

Yeah, because of the f the pressures from the family, like for because it's a clown family.

Cole 48:17

Yeah. Yeah. Clown family, but always wanted to be a cop. Mm-hmm. You know, nose permanent on. Permanently on. Yeah.

Joel 48:26

And so when he's trying to be a cop, he gets bullied by the cops because of the of the nose. So he's not fitting into either world now. That's a ground, that's ground.

Cole 48:35

Yeah, and guess what? Someone sabotaged the cop cars. Who do you think it was? Wasn't the clown. It wasn't the clown. Clown's dad.

Joel 48:47

Because he's like a mad son. And now the father's arrested. By the son. No!

Cole 48:55

Grounded. That's actually really grounded. Yeah.

Joel 48:57

100%. Um Cole Wadsworth. Yeah. Anything else on your heart or your mind that you want to share with the community?

Final Thoughts

Cole 49:08

Um, take any of the negativity that I spewed during this, uh, you know, with with a grain of salt, because I think more often than not, if I you sat down and had a conversation with people that truly believed on the other side of the things that I hold these like really strong opinions about, I would more often than not just come to an agreement and be like, yeah, actually, I totally can understand why you believe that and where the value is in that. But it doesn't mean that I don't truly believe the things that I have a lot of passion about. Yeah. You know.

Joel 49:42

There's space for both.

Cole 49:43

100%. Space for both. I and I wish I wish people had the courage to have these conversations with me, these disagreements about hip-hop.

Joel 49:53

People don't have the courage to No, people don't really want to.

Cole 49:57

Everyone's like too afraid to argue anymore, you know.

Joel 50:01

To argue about what? Anything. Uh I mean, we've argued, I think, a few times tonight. I hit you. I I hit you. I hit you in the head.

Cole 50:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're physically striking me, but your words are still like filled with love.

Joel 50:18

I'll say something mean to you right now. You couldn't. No, I'm not going to. Yeah, you couldn't. Um, thank you. Thanks, everybody, for listening to the Joy of Improv podcast today with Cole Wadsworth. Cole, thank you so much for joining. What a pleasure to have you on. This has been so delightful and very connecting um to talk about this beautiful art reform that I know we both love so much. Thank you so much for coming over.

Mixed 50:48

Cool. Thank you. All right. That's it.

Joel 51:00

I want to say thank you to Matt Isaacs. Thank you so much, Matt, for editing these episodes. Matt is a talented and kind member of the Atlanta Improv community. If anyone out there has any audio editing or song mixing needs, please reach out to me at Joel at the joyoffimprov.com. I'll connect you with Matt and get you on your way to getting some clean, fresh audio. If you're enjoying the podcast and you want to support and keep this podcast going, you can support in one of two ways. You can leave a five-star review. And if you do, please leave an improv topic that you want us to discuss or perhaps a question for a future guest. Another way to support the podcast is to give a monetary contribution on our Ko-Fi page. Anything helps. A dollar, five dollars does not matter. Anything helps in keeping the podcast going, you can find the link to contribute in our Instagram or in the link in the episode description. Thank you so so much for listening. It means so much that you're here. See you next time and scene.